3 Findings
3.1 Summary
Out of the over 4 million parcels in Virginia, 22,453 were identified as likely owned by a faith-based organization — with a 95% confidence level that the true accuracy of the entire dataset lies between 99.03% and 100%. These findings were based on a keyword search with a process of retention and elimination based on known faith-based and secular entities. Some faith-based properties could be absent from the analysis due to terms or phrases not accounted for. However, the following represents a significant, if not an overwhelming majority, of parcels owned by faith-based organizations in the Commonwealth of Virginia. In total, these parcels amount to 74,116 acres of land. To put this into context, the City of Richmond is roughly 40,000 acres, meaning the identified parcels amount to nearly twice the size of Richmond.
A histogram of the lot sizes of the 22,453 parcels shows that an overwhelming majority of these parcels are more than a tenth of an acre (4,356 square feet). The Faith in Housing legislation would encourage multifamily development whose lot size requirements depend on a variety of factors. The legislation introduced in 2024 allowed for a density of 40 units per acre and a height of one story or 15 feet above the maximum height where a locality’s zoning does not already permit residential uses. The median lot size is 23,509 square feet, which is approximately 0.53 acres. In many circumstances, this lot size is only viable for a small multifamily building of less than 20 units, particularly in urban areas served by public water and sewer. However, half of the parcels identified are larger than 0.53 acres, meaning that there is a significant number of parcels viable for larger scale multifamily development based on lot size.
3.1.1 By Planning District Commission
To investigate geographic patterns further, HFV utilized Virginia’s 21 planning district commissions (PDCs) to assign parcels to a geographic region. This is helpful because not all jurisdictions in Virginia are part of a metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area, whereas all jurisdictions are represented by at least one of the 21 PDCs. In addition, PDC boundaries represent an area wherein there are distinct socioeconomic patterns.